Hey Greg!
So in the latest chapter thread, a discussion came up regarding the recent Tokyo Tower event with the editors of One Piece. Specifically, the comment about Oda deciding to have Ace be Roger's son, with him using his editor's reaction as a push to drop the reveal. The interview also mentioned how Oda likes to go beyond the readers expectations. I wanted to pick your brain about the timeline of when Oda decided to make this decision with Ace's parents being revealed.
I've seen many people in the community (not as much on AP, more so on other forums) interpreting this as Oda deciding well into the story of Ace being captured to change his parentage, well after Oda would have already shown his fight with Blackbeard and revealed Dragon and Garp as Luffy's relatives and carry the Monkey family name. To sum it up, I've seen many people carry the idea that Oda decided to drop some story he had involving Dragon being Ace's biological father in favor of shocking the readers by instead revealing him to be Roger's son. To add fuel to that fire, the comment about him planning to kill Ace from the get-go could give a sufficient reason for his encounter with Blackbeard. He was always planned to fight him, be captured, and die in some way. Whether Oda had thought any more detail to it at that point, or not.
Going back and looking at everything with hindsight, knowing the lineage of Luffy and Ace, it seems like Oda had been dropping hints that Luffy and Ace were not blood related as far back as Chapter 432. In that chapter, we learn that both Dragon and Garp officially have the family name Monkey. Garp mentions Ace, but only when saying that he dropped Luffy off to be raised by a "friend" that also raised Ace. Looking back it seems odd that Garp -in the same chapter with his gag being him blabbing mind shattering family ties- would mention Luffy being Dragon's son, but not Ace. Then, a few chapters down the line, we get the Ace and Blackbeard confrontation that would begin the Paramount War's story.
So the main thing I wanted to pick your brain on is about the timeline of when Oda decided to make this shocking twist. I'm having a surprisingly hard time finding information on when the editors of One Piece worked on it. I am going off Sandman's summary of the Editor's talk show thing, so it could just be information that wasn't included by him. But it mentioned that Hattori was the editor who's reaction was what satisfied Oda with deciding to go that route. Do you happen to know when Hattori served as his editor? If he served during late '06 when Oda revealed Luffy's family, it would lead me to believe that he was at least highly considering taking Ace on this route back then. The absolute farthest back I can see him deciding to have Ace be Roger's son would be around the end of 2008/early 09, since he would have been helping with Strong World at the time including Chapter 0, with it's appearence of Portgas D Rouge. The manga would have towards the end of Amazon Lilly heading into Impel Down at the time, which features the very deceptive conversation between Garp and Ace. In hindsight it makes sense with the Roger reveal, but at the time it worked to further his poochie status as a guy with daddy abandonment issues that took his mom's name out of his hate of dad.
Of course, I could also be dead wrong, he planned to do something with Ace's parents(given he purposefully did not have the Monkey name) but decided to go with Roger for it's unexpected twist. I'm inclined to believe given the timeline of the Ace/BB fight, and the name reveal by Water 7 that he could have planned that early for the big surprise.
It might seem trival to try and guess when Oda decided to make planned dead character have these daddy issues, but I figure if anyone knows a bit about the timeline of these events in the manga and when Oda would have decided to make this twist and run it by Hattori, you would be the one to have the closest answer. Plus I just think learning more about how and when Oda has made these huge decisions for One Piece's story is just as fascinating as the story itself sometimes.
I posted the summary by Sandman in the spoiler tag below.
! @sandman:
! > Here is my brief summary for ONE PIECE editors' talk show in Tokyo Tower today.:wub:
- Oda received tons of fan letters asking him to save Ace's life during Marineford War arc.
- Editor Hattori asked Oda every week, "Are you really gonna kill Ace? I don't think it's a good idea.."
- However, Oda didn't understand why many audience are worried about Ace since he planned to kill Ace ever since his first appearance.
- Basic course of events in the story is usually decided before the arc starts. However, Oda didn't have an intention to make Shanks appear in Marineford War.
- Oda asks his editor what kinds of predictions audience have. Oda tries to go beyond their expectations.
- Oda asked his editor, "What do you think if Ace turns out to be Roger's son?" The editor was very surprised to hear that. Oda was satisfied with his reaction and decided to go with this idea.
- Oda goes mad when editor doesn't answer the phone, Editor holds his cell phone in his arms while sleeping so that he can answer the phone from Oda anytime.
- Editor wanted to publish ONE PIECE Magazine every month in 2017, but Shueisha rejected since it would be too risky.
- The cover page of ONE PIECE Magazine volume 3 got revealed. It will be released on September 1st. (Volume 2 will be out on August 4th.)
- Oda's comment about Wano arc will be included in ONE PIECE Magazine volume 2.
- Editor Naito and Sugita already know what will happen in Wano arc. Both of them agree that the climax story in Wano arc is awesome.
- Oda showed his BEST smile when he received a cake in OP 20th celebration party with his family and friends.
source: https://live.line.me/channels/79
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